Now healthy, healing

STOCKTON - Lisa Ferrero prefers to blend in. She's not one to draw attention to herself.

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By Bob Highfill/Record Sports Editor

recordnet.com

By Bob Highfill/Record Sports Editor

Posted Aug. 17, 2014 at 12:01 AM

By Bob Highfill/Record Sports Editor

Posted Aug. 17, 2014 at 12:01 AM

» Social News

STOCKTON - Lisa Ferrero prefers to blend in. She's not one to draw attention to herself.

But if her story will help others, she's willing to share it.

On Thursday, Ferrero and more than 100 women participated in a golf tournament and luncheon to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation at Stockton Golf and Country Club. In a room filled with people who have been affected directly or indirectly by cancer, Ferrero presented a simple yet powerful message: cancer knows no age.

She's living proof.

Ferrero's doctors weren't overly concerned in the summer of 2012, when the then-29-year-old Lodi High graduate and longtime professional golfer on the Symetra and LPGA tours explained she had discovered a lump in her right breast during a self examination. After all, she was too young to have breast cancer. The mass was in the wrong spot. And even though her family history includes her paternal grandmother, who at age 42 was diagnosed with the disease, cancer usually is passed through the mother's side. Ferrero's circumstances didn't fit a typical cancer diagnosis. Her doctors said they would monitor her.

More than a year passed. During that time, Ferrero played well enough to earn her LPGA Tour card for the 2014 season. But the lump hadn't dissipated. Late last December, Ferrero went to the doctors and pushed for an MRI, "just to check it out," she said.

Something was there.

"I went in for the mammogram and when everyone was quiet," she said, "I knew something was wrong."

More tests were ordered, and in January, Ferrero's suspicion, unfortunately, was confirmed. She was diagnosed with ductal carcinoma, considered the earliest form of breast cancer. Suddenly, Ferrero was a statistic in a category that seems to be growing at an alarming rate. According to the National Cancer Institute as reported in Golf Week, one out of every eight women born today will be diagnosed with breast cancer. A woman in her 30s has a 1-in-227 chance of being diagnosed, while a woman in her 40s has a 1-in-68 chance.

"There are just too many people who have some form of it," Ferrero said.

On Valentine's Day this year, surgeons at UC San Francisco Medical Center at Mt. Zion removed a 9-centimeter mass from Ferrero's breast. They also removed two sentinel lymph nodes from under her right arm. Fortunately, the cancer had not spread, though Ferrero said waiting to hear those words was agonizing.

"The main thing I was worried about was it was there for at least 14-15 months without anybody doing anything about it, just monitoring it," Ferrero said. "So I thought I might be in trouble. But once they told me what it was and they had proof after they did the surgery that it didn't spread, then it was OK."

In late June, Ferrero underwent reconstructive surgery and has since gone through physical therapy to regain the range of motion in her right arm. Earlier this month, she reunited with her former swing coach, Joey Ferrari. Ferrero also has worked with sports psychologist and former Pacific golf coach Glen Albaugh.

Ferrero makes her home in Palm Harbor, Fla., but is spending more time in Lodi these days, so she can be with her family and close to the doctors at UCSF, who have told her she has healed quicker than any patient they've had.

Ferrero received a major-medical waiver from the LPGA and will have full playing privileges next season. She hopes to be ready in time for the season opener in January.

In the meantime, Ferrero plans to play in pro-am tournaments and help support cancer-awareness charities. Kelley Spooner, the head golf professional at Stockton Golf and Country Club, said Ferrero's presence Thursday was important.

"Being so young, 31 years old, it's just important that we get the message out there that cancer knows no gender, it knows no age," said Spooner, who has raised more than $50,000 for the Susan G. Komen Foundation through tournaments she has helped organize at the country club. "And we want to continue to do our part to fight the fight."

Ferrero isn't exactly thrilled with the prospect of being the LPGA's "face of cancer awareness," but she wants people to take their health seriously, including her friends and competitors on the tour.

"My message is just check it out because you never know," Ferrero said. "If you find it early, you can just take care of it like I did."

Contact sports editor Bob Highfill at (209) 546-8282 or bhighfill@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/sportsblog and on Twitter @bobhighfill.